Introduction

In safety-critical industries like automotive, aerospace, and medical devices, ensuring functional safety is paramount. One of the significant challenges in achieving this is Dependent Failure Analysis (DFA), a method mandated by ISO 26262 to identify and mitigate failures that arise due to dependencies between system components. But why is DFA essential, and what challenges does it address?

Problem Statement

Modern semiconductor and electronic systems are highly integrated, often sharing resources like power, clocks, and communication channels. While individual components may meet safety requirements, interdependencies can introduce hidden failure risks that are not captured through traditional safety analyses. The key challenges DFA addresses include:

• Identifying Common Cause Failures (CCFs): When multiple components fail due to a shared cause (e.g., voltage instability), it can lead to catastrophic failures if not properly analyzed.
• Detecting Cascading Failures: A failure in one module may trigger malfunctions in other connected modules, reducing system robustness.
• Assessing Systemic Faults: Hardware and software interactions can introduce systemic faults that propagate across subsystems, complicating safety validation.
• Quantifying Failure Correlation: Understanding and quantifying failure dependencies is critical for achieving accurate safety metrics in compliance with ISO 26262-9, Clause 7.

Without a structured DFA approach, safety mechanisms may be insufficient, leading to unexpected failures, regulatory non-compliance, and costly product recalls.

Conclusion

Dependent Failure Analysis (DFA) is critical for uncovering hidden risks in modern safety-critical systems. Reach out to us to understand how DFA can enhance your system’s safety and ensure compliance with ISO 26262.